{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "teru-teru-bozu",
 "type": "amulet",
 "names": {
  "name": "Teru teru bōzu",
  "native": "照る照る坊主",
  "script": "Japanese",
  "lang": "ja",
  "said": "TE-ru TE-ru BOH-zu",
  "aliases": [
   "teru teru bozu",
   "てるてる坊主",
   "fine-weather priest",
   "shine-shine monk"
  ]
 },
 "etymology": {
  "root": "Japanese teru 照る 'to shine', doubled, + bōzu 坊主 'Buddhist monk' — 'shine, shine, monk'",
  "note": "The doll's head is read as a monk's shaved head, which shines in sun; the name is also the request. A children's rhyme addresses the doll directly as the fine-weather priest.",
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
 },
 "region": [
  "japan",
  "china"
 ],
 "countries": [
  "JP"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "era": "early-modern",
  "status": "living",
  "portable": "placed",
  "restricted": "open",
  "hemisphere": [
   "N",
   "E"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A small handmade doll of tissue paper or cloth, white, a ball of stuffing for a head with the cloth falling loose below it and a string tied round the neck. It hangs outside a door or a window, made the day before a day the maker wants dry. Children make them; most Japanese meet one in kindergarten or daycare.",
  "story": "The practice came from China and changed sex on the way. In the Chinese version, Saoqing Niang 掃晴娘, the figure is a young girl with a broom, set on the end of a broom to sweep the sky clear; the story attached has a girl ascending to the heavens in a heavy rainfall to sweep the clouds off and save her city, and paper cut-outs of her hung outdoors afterwards in her memory. Japan took the practice up in the Heian period, inside an older weather-watching culture, hiyorimi, that runs with certainty from the Heian period through the Edo.\n\nThe Japanese doll seems to come out of the resemblance between origami dolls and the names recorded in mid-Edo literature. The reference this project can name is Kiyū Shōran, written in 1830 by Nobuyo Kitamura, a scholar of Japanese classical literature: \"If the weather becomes fine, I write my pupils on the paper, offer sake to the gods, and pour it into the river.\" Painting in the eyes after the sun comes out, and the libation, and the river — the whole disposal is in that one sentence.\n\nIt became popular in the Edo period among city dwellers, whose children made them the day before and chanted, \"Fine-weather priest, please let the weather be good tomorrow.\" A warabe uta released in 1921 fixed the modern version, and children sing it while making the doll. The song is not soft: it promises the doll plenty of sake if the wish comes off, and decapitation if it does not.",
  "how": "Tissue paper or a scrap of white cloth, gathered over a ball of stuffing, tied at the neck with string, hung from an eave, a window frame or a door on the eve of the day in question. The face is often left blank and drawn on afterwards, when the weather has behaved. If the day comes up fine, a libation of sake is poured over the doll and it is floated away in a river. Hanging one upside down is the reverse request, for rain — a use this project has not read in a cited source and so does not assert here.",
  "today": "Still made by Japanese children in 2026, taught through the 1921 nursery rhyme. Ikeda in Nagano Prefecture has built its town mascot on the shape."
 },
 "dating": {
  "period": "Edo to the present",
  "from_year": 1603,
  "to_year": null,
  "living": true,
  "label": "c. 1603 to now, with a Heian-period import behind it",
  "method": "textual",
  "circa": true,
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
  "note": "The source says the doll became popular in the Edo period and originates in a Chinese practice adapted in the Heian period; 1603 is the start of the Edo period and stands as the earliest year the statement carries. The firm attestation is Kiyū Shōran, 1830."
 },
 "object": {
  "form": "figurine",
  "materials": [
   "paper",
   "cloth",
   "thread",
   "ink"
  ],
  "worn": [
   "door",
   "wall",
   "roof"
  ],
  "made_by": "anybody, usually a child; no priest, no shrine, no consecration",
  "inscription": "the eyes, drawn in afterwards where a fine day is granted",
  "colour": [
   "white"
  ],
  "single_use": true,
  "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
  "note": "No published measurement was read. Hung on the eve of the day wanted; discharged with sake and a river."
 },
 "against": [
  {
   "harm": "bad-luck",
   "who": "children making one the day before an outing, in the chant recorded from the Edo period: 'Fine-weather priest, please let the weather be good tomorrow'",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "the harm named by the carriers is rain on a particular day; this atlas's vocabulary has no weather key, so the nearest one is used and flagged"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "daruma",
   "as": "the other Japanese figure bought or made against a deadline and then discharged — that one burnt, this one floated away",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "japanese-engimono",
   "as": "the tradition it sits at the edge of: made at home, by a child, with nobody's seal on it",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "omamori",
   "as": "the counterpart from the shrine counter — consecrated, bought, and for the year rather than for tomorrow",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "corn-dolly",
   "as": "the other figure twisted out of cheap material for the weather and the harvest, and then destroyed on purpose",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "as": "the long read this belongs in: a charm children make with their own hands, for their own day out",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "to": "hanging-at-door",
   "as": "where it works from — an eave, a window frame, outside, where the weather can see it",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "ofuda",
   "as": "the printed sheet a Japanese household hangs indoors for the year; this one hangs outdoors for a night",
   "rel": "contrast"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Teru teru bōzu — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teru_teru_b%C5%8Dzu"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
  "s:wp-ema-shinto",
  "s:web-ja-wikipedia-engimono"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.how": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
    "note": "the upside-down rain request is widely repeated and is explicitly NOT asserted here, because no source in this record carries it"
   }
  }
 },
 "images": [],
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Teru teru bozu.jpg",
  "File:Teruterubozu001.jpg"
 ],
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "A small handmade doll of tissue paper or cloth, white, a ball of stuffing for a head with the cloth falling loose below it and a string tied round the neck.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "japan",
   "name": "Japan",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "china",
   "name": "China",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "hemispheres": [
  "E",
  "N"
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "daruma",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Daruma",
   "as": "the other Japanese figure bought or made against a deadline and then discharged — that one burnt, this one floated away",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "japanese-engimono",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Engimono",
   "as": "the tradition it sits at the edge of: made at home, by a child, with nobody's seal on it",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "omamori",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Omamori",
   "as": "the counterpart from the shrine counter — consecrated, bought, and for the year rather than for tomorrow",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "corn-dolly",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Corn dolly",
   "as": "the other figure twisted out of cheap material for the weather and the harvest, and then destroyed on purpose",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "Most of them are for children",
   "as": "the long read this belongs in: a charm children make with their own hands, for their own day out",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "to": "hanging-at-door",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Hanging at the door",
   "as": "where it works from — an eave, a window frame, outside, where the weather can see it",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "ofuda",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ofuda",
   "as": "the printed sheet a Japanese household hangs indoors for the year; this one hangs outdoors for a night",
   "rel": "contrast"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Teru teru bōzu",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teru_teru_b%C5%8Dzu",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-ema-shinto",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Ema (Shinto)",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ema_(Shinto)",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-ja-wikipedia-engimono",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "縁起物 (Engimono)",
   "publisher": "ウィキペディア (Japanese Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B8%81%E8%B5%B7%E7%89%A9",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
   "note": "the upside-down rain request is widely repeated and is explicitly NOT asserted here, because no source in this record carries it"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
  },
  "etymology": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
  },
  "dating": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
  },
  "object": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "against_facts": [
  {
   "key": "bad-luck",
   "label": "Bad luck, unspecified",
   "who": "children making one the day before an outing, in the chant recorded from the Edo period: 'Fine-weather priest, please let the weather be good tomorrow'",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-teru-teru-b-zu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "the harm named by the carriers is rain on a particular day; this atlas's vocabulary has no weather key, so the nearest one is used and flagged"
  }
 ],
 "material_facts": [
  {
   "key": "paper",
   "label": "Paper",
   "kind": "written"
  },
  {
   "key": "cloth",
   "label": "Cloth",
   "kind": "textile"
  },
  {
   "key": "thread",
   "label": "Thread and cord",
   "kind": "textile",
   "note": "red thread runs from the Mediterranean to Mongolia"
  },
  {
   "key": "ink",
   "label": "Ink",
   "kind": "written"
  }
 ],
 "worn_facts": [
  {
   "key": "door",
   "label": "At the door",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "wall",
   "label": "On a wall",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "roof",
   "label": "On the roof",
   "group": "placed"
  }
 ],
 "form_fact": {
  "key": "figurine",
  "label": "Figurine"
 },
 "holding_facts": [],
 "span": "1603 CE to now",
 "country_names": [
  {
   "iso": "JP",
   "name": "Japan"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "daruma",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Daruma",
   "as": "the other Japanese figure made to be discharged — one is burnt at the temple, the other floated down a river",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "japanese-engimono",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Engimono",
   "as": "the edge case: made at home, by a child, from tissue, with no shrine's name on it and nothing to return",
   "rel": "contrast"
  }
 ]
}